US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet in Alaska on Aug 15, to discuss options for ending the war in Ukraine, marking their first face-to-face meeting since 2018. This meeting was announced by the US president on Friday.
The meeting aims to broker a peace deal for Ukraine. Trump has suggested that any agreement could potentially involve territorial swaps between Ukraine and Russia. Specific details have not been provided, and the idea is highly contentious.
Trump took to his Truth Social on Friday evening and wrote, “The highly anticipated meeting between myself, as President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, will take place next Friday, August 15, 2025, in the Great State of Alaska. Further details to follow.”
Kremlin aide, Yuri Ushakov confirmed that the two leaders would meet and called the summit’s Alaska venue “quite logical.” Both countries had previously stated that they anticipated a meeting as early as next week.
This meeting comes after the US-imposed deadline for Russia to consent to a ceasefire in Ukraine expired without any outcomes. Trump’s strategy has involved putting more pressure on Russian trade partners, threatening fresh sanctions, and making direct diplomatic efforts.
The decision to meet in Alaska is partly influenced by security concerns. Putin faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes, restricting travel to ICC member states. However, the US is not a member, so Alaska provides a relatively safe venue for the Russian president.
The US state’s proximity to Russia adds a symbolic layer to the slated meeting. It was once part of the Russian Empire before being sold to the US in 1867.
According to Western officials briefed on the issue, US officials, including Trump, have apprised the Ukrainian and European leaders on a plan Putin has proposed to end the war in Ukraine in exchange for Kyiv making major territorial concessions.
The plan, which Putin presented to Trump’s foreign envoy Steve Witkoff in a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday, would require Ukraine to cede the eastern Donbas region—the majority of which is currently occupied by Russia—as well as Crimea, which Russia illegally acquired in 2014.
Current fighting lines would be frozen as part of the proposal, but other details were still unclear.
Some European officials were concerned that Putin was trying to evade Trump’s threatening sanctions.
Ukraine and its allies strongly oppose any peace agreement that would require ceding occupied regions to Russia. Putin maintains that a settlement would necessitate Ukraine relinquishing parts of its territory and scaling back Western support and NATO aspirations.
While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly urged a three-way summit, Russia has currently ruled out direct participation, saying any meeting with the former could only happen once terms are agreed.
However, the plan seemed to be the catalyst that prompted Trump to initiate preparations for a summit with Putin. When the Russian leader met with then-US President Barack Obama at a UN General Assembly meeting in September 2015, it was his first visit to the US in almost 10 years.
Over the last two days, Witkoff and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio have made calls with the European officials. Witkoff discussed the plan in further detail with many European officials on Friday.
Beyond halting Russian offensive in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, two other regions of Ukraine where Russia controls some territories, it is unclear what the plan would mean.